Water is an irreplaceable, invaluable resource on the planet. We cannot discount how crucial it is to ensure the survival of living organisms. However, as beneficial as it is, water could also harm others, especially if it’s contaminated.
The average household needs clean water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and other activities. External factors like contaminants, leaks, and temperature change can affect water quality, which can affect the health and quality of life of the family.
One day you may find a weird odor coming from your faucets. What’s supposed to be potable drinking water might harm your health instead of sustaining you. As for hygienic purposes, anything different from the water can easily irritate your skin. What do you do when the water at home has a foul odor? Read on.
- Pinpoint Its Source
Expert plumbers from companies like $99 Main Line or your water provider can easily deduce the root problem of the foul odor with their professional equipment. But be it as it may, you can still go ahead and determine where the odor is coming from yourself.
When your water at home smells foul or unusual, the first thing to do is to locate the source of the odor. To know where the odor is, you need to open your faucets one by one and collect water from them. Smell each sample to determine whether the odor only comes from some of the faucets or all of them.
To ensure efficiency in your odor inspection, do the smell test in an open area. This way, your senses can be refreshed from inhaling the foul odor. In doing so, you’ll be able to determine your water quality properly.
Mark the sites where the water smells off and where it’s normal yet. As much as possible, do not consume or use the contaminated water until the whole issue is resolved.
- Identify The Smell
Once you can tell your water smells weird, describe how it became ‘weird.’ If you’re lucky enough not to be exposed to that many foul odors in your lifetime, you might be unable to pinpoint a name for it exactly. Lucky for you, there’s a handful of smells you can pick from that should narrow down your classification:
- Rotten eggs (or sewage). Smelling rotten eggs (or sulfur) in your water typically means there are bacteria within your pipes that came from an accumulation of organic matter, such as hair, soap, and leftovers. The longer they clog your plumbing system, the more likely they’ll turn into a food source for bacteria to utilize natural chemicals (like sulfur). Hence, this produces a gas smelling like rotten eggs or sewage.
- Musty. As soon as you smell something stale or musty, mold may be the culprit. Considering how this fungus thrives in moist, dark environments, there’s no surprise why it favors your plumbing system. This happens if living organisms are already festering in your water supply.
- Rust. Plastic and metal are the only materials used in producing pipes. Although metal has been in the industry longer than plastic, it’s still lacking in certain areas. Water damage is metal’s primary problem, especially if used for too long without maintenance, rust can occur.
- Chemicals. Although unwanted, it’s natural for living organisms to contaminate water. To exterminate them, water suppliers use chemicals like chlorine. However, the smell will linger because it takes time to get rid of these organisms fully.
- Handle It Accordingly
Now that you’ve identified the odor, there are different solutions for each one.
For water smelling like rotten eggs, treat it with a chlorine bleach solution. You can also consider adding an automatic water chlorinator to get rid of this problem more permanently. Since this requires handling of chemicals, you may want to call your plumber instead of doing this yourself.
A quick and easy DIY fix for musty water is to simply pour in a quarter cup of baking soda and white vinegar. Let the two substances react and bubble up for 10 minutes. During that time, boil a pot of water and pour it down the drain once those 10 minutes are up. This should work to disinfect your pipes, removing the odor.
As for chemicals, the smell of chlorine typically goes away the longer it’s used. So, it’s recommended you leave it alone. But if it smells a lot like gasoline or other chemicals just as harmful, don’t drink water from it. When in doubt, it’s prudent to consult the professionals to treat the problem at their sources.
Takeaway
Since it’s always been tasteless and odorless, water is meant to be a resource one can use universally. Therefore, it’s easy to point out if you find it any different, even with its smell. However, while this may seem like a small issue, foul odors are likely a result of something that could harm one’s health. Hence, you should know what to do if your water smells.
